First of all, I don’t believe the US wants to get out of Iraq. The US didn’t go in there merely to liberate the Iraqi people from a cruel dictator. If our leaders truly detested ruthless and cruel dictators then Uzbekistan wouldn’t have been allowed to join the “Coalition of the Willing.” For the so-called president of Uzbekistan is just as cruel and ruthless as Saddam Hussein was, and seems to delight in dipping his political opponents into tubs of boiling water. [link] So the US didn’t go into Iraq out of any form of moral indignation. Unless, of course, our leaders are very foolish and cannot detect those allies who are despots: those who treat their people cruelly and don’t believe in accountability or democratic institutions. More >